Obama and the Vision Thing

There's long been a fundamental problem with the green world — the myriad companies, activists, evangelists, politicians, clergy, thought leaders, and others who, each in their own way, have prodded us to address our planet's environmental ills. And it explains why, after four decades of the modern environmental movement, only a relative handful of companies and citizens have joined in, while many more have dragged their heels to slow, or even reverse, environmental progress.

The problem is this: No one has created a vision of what happens if we get things right.

That seems odd, when you think about it. We have a crystal clear picture of the consequences of getting things wrong (thank you very much, Al Gore). We know well the potential devastation of unmitigated environmental problems: the droughts, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, resource wars, famine, and pestilence. We know about epidemics of childhood asthma in inner cities, toxic rivers in impoverished lands, and depleted fisheries that may never fully recover. We see for ourselves the rampant development in formerly verdant landscapes. There are vivid pictures of denuded forests, strip-mined mountains, and strip-malled farmland. We read about these things, hear Hollywood stars fret over them, and may even experience them firsthand.

Point is, we know what business as usual looks like.

But what about success? What happens if we get things right? What does that look like?

This, as much as anything, is a vision I'm hoping President Obama can portray to America and the world. Yes, there is a list of necessary policy prescriptions as long as my arm (and, fortunately, a corps of green policy geeks much savvier than I who know how to get them enacted). But without the vision thing, even the best policies can only go so far.

This is no small matter. For decades, environmental leaders in business, activism, and government have expressed frustration that the public isn't behind them, except in disappointingly small numbers, despite a litany of increasingly dire environmental problems. These same leaders express bewilderment at the painfully slow uptake of green products and personal habits, from buying organics to recycling to energy conservation. Even when people understand the issues and consequences of everyday actions — the direct relationship between inefficient light bulbs and the threat of global climate change, for example — they usually fail to act.

We've long known that fear is a limited motivator. Think of how persuasion has changed. A generation ago, we were told by advertisers to worry about ring around the collar, iron-poor blood, waxy yellow buildup, and the heartbreak of psoriasis. Madison Avenue believed that driving fear into the hearts and minds of the public would unleash a wealth of sales and profits. No longer. Today, profits come from imbuing visions of sexual appeal, personal freedom, and a life without worry. Those positive images are the ones that inspire people to take action and, for better or worse, make choices in the marketplace.

What is the positive image of "green" that will inspire a nation — indeed, the world — to transform itself in the way that Obama and others are hoping: that create jobs, build economic opportunities, engender energy independence, attack climate change, improve public health, reduce environmental degradation, and ensure national security?

Ask yourself: What does a world look like where former autoworkers and steelmakers are employed in well-paid jobs to manufacture turbines and solar panels, and where mechanics, electricians, truck drivers, and plumbers are working fervently to build the smarter, upgraded electricity grid needed to distribute all this home-grown energy? Where a new generation of smart buildings and electric vehicles are operating in concert on cheaper, less-polluting energy, and a new generation of technicians is needed to build and maintain them and infrastructure necessary to power them? Where every home, office, factory, and store is retrofitted or rebuilt to be as energy efficient as possible, made so by armies of newly trained workers from local communities? Where entrepreneurial companies are mining landfills in order to turn waste back into raw materials at a fraction of the cost and environmental impacts of mining or manufacturing new ones? Where food is grown and distributed regionally, reducing transportation emissions and ensuring food security, creating a wealth of jobs for local farmers, food processors, distributors, and others?

I could go on, but you get the point. It's a pretty compelling story. Who's telling it?

Van Jones is. The author of The Green-Collar Economy and one of my personal heroes, Jones may be the only one who has learned how to inspire people with the vision thing. And not just any people: Jones is providing hope to legions of the economic underclass who have largely been left out of the environmental movement to date. He's telling ghetto kids to "Put down a handgun and pick up a caulking gun," and that, "Somebody's going to make a million dollars figuring out a way to get solar panels made and deployed in our 'hoods. I think it should be you." (Elizabeth Kolbert has a terrific profile of Jones in the January 12 issue of New Yorker.) Another Jones classic line, about Obama: "It's not that we have a President who's black; it's that for the first time we have a President who's green."

Jones has the ear of Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and others, but beyond Jones, not many others have his vision or voice. Precious few others can spin a positive, exciting story about a world in which thinking and acting green becomes a pathway through the thicket of so many seemingly intractable economic, political, and social problems. And that lack of voices, itself, is a problem.

Can Obama incite and excite the populace by painting an enticing picture of a greener world? Of course: Yes, he can. But will he? Amid the many pressures he'll have — to cure an ailing economy, world strife, and, God knows, the common cold — will he be willing and able to place his political currency in the green vision thing? If he can, it could be one of the more profound exercises in the audacity of hope.

And what about the rest of us? What's the uplifting story each of us is willing and able to tell? How much of your own personal and professional currency are you willing to expend to help not merely portray this good, green vision but also to ensure it becomes reality?

Without that vision, the notion of a greener economy is destined to be seen as a "nice to do," not a "need to do." It will be easily countered by the incumbent interests who hope to continue to profit from the existing model, and who will warn that this is no time to tinker with radical, untested ideas about how our world works. And our political leaders will follow the money, and the votes, watering down the green ideal until it becomes yet another tepid policy soup.

We've seen vividly what happens when presidents squander opportunities. After 9/11, President Bush could have inspired Americans to demand energy independence as a means of avoiding future terrorist attacks, enacting a wealth of policy directives to promote more efficient buildings and vehicles and develop oil alternatives. He could have inspired us with a hopeful vision born of the tragedy we'd just endured. We would have swallowed hard to pay a dollar extra tax on gas, maybe more, knowing it was going to a worthy cause. But he told us to go shopping and left it at that. Eight long years later, we'll have another chance.

To quote Van Jones one more time: "Barack Obama helped us take America back. Now we have to help him take America forward."

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Comments

[Brooks Jordan]

Joel,

You're absolutely right about this - it's time to start telling this positive vision. All of us. And prospering from it.

[Ryan]

Personally, I think that the youths should be more involved in crafting that vision of a greener present.
It's ironic that businesses view going green as hurting the bottomline, when it's actually possible to cut costs (through energy efficiency, materials usage) and increasing the "green" value of the company.

[Amy Belanger]

Joel,

I hope Obama's transition team is consulting with you and Strategies for the Green Economy. If not, let's make sure they do. It was great meeting you at the Green Business Conference in San Francisco.

Amy Belanger
Deputy Director, Green Business Network
Green America (formerly Co-op America)

[Mike Kilroy]

Great post, Joel.

I keep thinking we've seen the mortgage bubble, the Internet bubble, etc., etc. But we're really ending now is the nature bubble -- nature is not going to let us continue the practices of the past 150 years of the industrial revolution. And those countries and companies who understand that first and execute will win. If the U.S. does it, we can sell our technology and processes to China and India who are drowning in their own waste.

But we are still a "frontier" nation if only in our minds, and much of the country still thinks the world is inexaustible for our pollution and for our production. It's not. How to convince them of that is and has been the huge conundrum.

[Catherine]

I think part of the vision of what this new world will look like is also told well by Tom Friedman in "Hot, Flat and Crowded" with a variety of reasons why it's not just a good idea, it is THE idea for survival and prosperity.
I also think that if you pay attention, there is much written out there about different pieces of this vision for the future, that unites disparate but complementary values of home, hearth, self-reliance, community, prosperity, faith, etc. in the local food, organic, nature for students, new business models, spending on quality not quantity, "decluttering and simplifying." It's no accident that you are seeing these complementary messages coming from all corners at a time when internet and social networking makes getting a message out and connecting so much easier. It is truly a time of transition - and hope along with empowerment - we thought it might be closer to the millennium, but sometimes things have to get worse, before they get better.
" Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the minde can achieve" - Napoleon Hill

[Charley]

YES!!! Perhaps your best blog entry to date. Thanks and keep up the great work.

[Danna]

A little note about the vision and I don't know if Jones addresses this:

We must recognize that all is related, ie, we are all relatives--every species as well as speck of soil. We must begin to see creation including humanity as sacred and treat it as such as our second nature.

Thanks Joel!

Danna

[Shlomit Tassa]

Dear Joel,

Ironically, it seems safer to continue damaging the planet than to change something and be damned as a greenwasher. I think that public opinion has become so critical that it does not differentiate between true greenwashing and negative results of trying to do the right thing. There are complex implications to any changes to the ecological system, and sometimes companies try to do good, but the results later prove to be damaging and the company gets slapped by the public. I think this brings many companies to a standstill. As we, the general public, embrace this positive vision you describe, we also have to accept that mistakes *need* to be made, both by government and industry. The important thing is that we move forward, try, change, innovate, learn from our mistakes, share our successes, and by so doing, we'll build a green future by shaking up the present.

Thanks for a very inspiring post!
Shlomit

[Joan]

Joel
Thank you for that thought! I don't know how, in this personal trainer overrun world, in the age of positive thinking nobody has thought about making a positive vision for a greener future!
So refreshing.
And so important.I am not much of a visionary, but I think green needs to be marketed like everything else, and in order for people to hop one board it should be made as sexy as possible.

[Morgan Daly]

Awesome post Joel,

I have had similar thoughts to yours on this subject. If only I were so articulate. I used to frame it as World Peace One. At the time I was thinking in response to the Invasion of Iraq but the idea is similar in not so much thinking about what we don't want and therefor avoiding it but imagining what we do want and taking real steps to creating it.

My partner and I used to ask ourselves the question: "When all the wars are over, how will the anti-war protester define themselves?"

Love your work Joel. I will be checking out Van Jones now. Thanks!

[Sean Burke]

Thank you Joel for a great post. I enjoyed the read. And a very nice tip about Van Jones and “The Green-Collar Economy”.

I have just taken a look on the Van Jones website and, interestingly, I can’t seem to find it in electronic format. So... does a book need to be printed on paper? Or for that matter... is the pollution I generate (my carbon footprint) via the electricity I require to allow me to read a book on-line less or greater than the carbon footprint of the paper production, printing and global distribution of a book? Surely some wise scientist looks into this type of “stuff”. But just for sake of argument - for anyone who has a copy of the hardcover in front of them - what type of paper has the book been printed with; what type of ink; and where was it printed? Does the book state whether the paper has been produced and / or the book been printed in facilities that have been ISO14000 certified? And is there any mention of where the book was printed and what measures were taken to reduce the carbon footprint during the global distribution of the book. I make reference to all of this with regard to your own point: “How much of your own personal and professional currency are you willing to expend to help not merely portray this good, green vision but also to ensure it becomes reality?” All of the details of printing, production, etc can be influenced by an author. I am sure Van Jones looked into many of them - even if this is not clearly stated within the book.

One vision of the future for me: books and text media will be printed on recycled paper using environmentally friendly ink and printing processes. In addition, the need for long distance distribution will be minimized due to the printing of the books being conducted in a decentralized network of national certified printing facilities - thereby decreasing the need to send books by ship to the reader, in what ever country he or she may be.

In the same vein, take a look at the book “The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating”. This is a very nice and appropriate community vision that we should all incorporate into our own lives. It would be great to see some websites that list where you can buy your local produce; and which restaurants cook with local produce. A small review / article of the book is written here: http://www.streeteditors.com/archives/2486. And in response to the book review, the writers on the site created the “100-mile diet challenge”. The following link describes the challenge with some additional follow up links about their successes: http://www.streeteditors.com/archives/2688

I also found a few interesting points regarding eco-friendly printing on this site: http://www.greenink.com/program/program.php

Finally, relevant to “The Green-Collar-Economy”, on the “Green for All” website is a personal and community study guide of the book. Here is the link: http://www.greenforall.org/resources/the-green-collar-economy/bookguide/download. One of the exercises is for the reader to take some time to write a “green” vision for their own community.

Regarding Obama’s responsibility in “fixing” all of this. I understand that Obama is the “saviour” of America and in many cases the world: however the more pressure of hope, expectation, vision and success that is pinned to him, the more likely he will “fail”. You articulate this point in a more succinct manner by making reference to Van Jones’ quote: “Barack Obama helped us take America back. Now we have to help him take America forward.” So that said, what visions do you have for your own local community and family life?

As for success? I think in ways, it is a matter of reframing our perspectives of success. And of course, understanding that success in the green / environmental sense is not just limited to your community, state, province, or nation - it covers the global community of people, governments and industry. Of course it makes perfect sense to me to spend an extra $20 on a fluorescent globe; however whilst that globe is made in an under-developed country yet financed by first-world entrepreneurs of the environmental movement, making them both look good and make a lot of money - this is still not quite success in the global sense of the “environmental success” paradigm that we are trying to achieve.

That said, the simple act of discussion, generated by souls such as yourself, helps our friends, colleagues, peers and leaders to think and then take steps toward making that “green” vision more of a reality. Thank you once again for your enjoyable posting.

[Morgan Daly]

In response to Sean on book printing.

I think it was the guy that is behind the 'Library of [insert name here] project to get all the written text on the planet online. One of his dreams is for book vans to be printing books on demand. From memory in the talk I was listening to he was questioned about the environmental impacts of printing books. He responded pointing out that it is about demand. Consider the masses of Newspaper printed everyday and yet so little of the paper is actually read by the purchaser. How cool if you could just print on demand the property section before heading out for your Sunday coffee.

[Nils Davis]

Joel - fantastic article! At my green building salon last night one of the participants said the problem was "perception" - perception that green is more expensive or that it requires privation.

Silicon Valley may be way ahead of the rest of the nation in terms of our perception that "green is just an obvious thing to do" (after all, we had a green building salon). But a big challenge for the green movement is to change that perception in the rest of the country.

[Pam Strayer]

I would recommend to anyone interested in The Vision Thing to read Huey Johnson's excellent Green Plans book, see him on Fora.tv (from his LongNow.org talk), see RRI's ppts on Dutch, New Zealand and Mexico City green plans on slideshare.net (http://www.slideshare.net/RRI/slideshows), catch the upcoming Bioneers webcast on rri.org, or subscribe to or see the Green Plans videos on RRI's YouTube channel. Huey Johnson won the 2001 UN Environment Prize for his deep understanding of sustainability, which he has devoted many of his 75 years developing. He served as head of California's resources management office during the Jerry Brown administration. His close friend and supporter, Yvon Chouinard, has sent copies of the Green Plans book to Obama, et al, but it should be widely read!

[Brian Setzler]

Der Joel,

I too would love to see President Obama take leadership to create a new economy but what I fear, is that he won't take on either the multi-national corporations or Wall Street. A "green revolution" that leaves these institutions in place will not succeed.

David Korten has just published (1/23/09), "Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth", which I highly recommend to you and your readers.

Van Jones' vision of a green economy is about the creation of Real Wealth, but the total system outcome (pollution, poverty, resource use and allocation, etc.) will not be "green" if we allow it to be co-opted by Wall Street and financial speculators.

Wall Street and the financial speculators have fooled us into thinking that pushing paper around creates wealth. These folks merely create what Korten calls Phantom Wealth while appropriating large claims against the Real Wealth created by workers and Main Street businesses.

David Korten's book includes a speech he'd love to hear President Obama deliver to the world. It contains all the elements of Van Jones' vision, but goes much, much further towards systemic change.

We have a system problem. We need a system solution.

Brian C. Setzler, MBA, CPA
Founder of TriLibrium

www.GreenCPA.blogspot.com

[amnon]

Joel - thanks for the insightful post. I would like to mention one common mistake that is a particular case of the lack of "positive vision" i believe you are talking about. An example: when confronted with strong arguments in favor of organic food, people often react by saying something along these lines: "Its very nice for you yuppies to buy your $5-a-piece organic apples, but really going organic would mean starvation for hundreds of millions, since industrialized farming is so much more effective in getting quantity (if not always quality) out of the ground."
On the face of it, this sounds like a difficult argument to refute, but in reality it is an instance of a common fallacy when reacting to innovation. The person resisting an innovative idea depicts a horrible picture of a future with your idea implemented **assuming that all else will remain equal**. Yes, it is true that if the health situation, government spending, economic structures and farming technologies stay as they are today, then switching the entire world (or even country) to organic is not viable, but as part of a total new vision of what all these could be - and here this ties in so strongly with your post, Joel - then it makes all the sense in the world. That is why the different "green" initiatives need to unite into a coherent total vision - not only because they have an accumulated effect, but also because many of them depend on many of the others for their viability.

[ganhar dinheiro]

Great post ! i've already subscribed to your feed. Thanks.